Religious Studies

The history evidences: the Local Churches that were historically associated with earthly empires were uninterested in the canonical establishment of local churches under their jurisdictions, and therefore usually granted autocephaly to churches only under the pressure of historic circumstances. No exception is the Moscow Patriarchate, which has incorporated the Orthodox Church in Ukraine since 1686.

Ukrainian Orthodoxy and Ukrainian society suffer from division. The majority of Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. The rest of the Orthodox community of Ukraine has chosen a different path of self-proclaimed autocephaly. However, neither the first nor the second path is optimal for the Orthodox Church in Ukraine to date.

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Secretary for the Primate of the UOC-MP, His Eminence Oleksandr (Drabynko) Metropolitan of Vyshneve and Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyy confirmed in his statement the information provided by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine about the pressure exerted by the former authorities on the UOC-MP Primate, Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine, for the purpose of his removal from the position held. The document was made public by Pravoslavya Ukrainy (Orthodoxy of Ukraine) website.

"As a direct participant of the events referred to in the statement of the Press Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, I declare that the information in the statement is true. Pressure was really exerted on the UOC-MP Primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr by the former authorities for the purpose of his removal from office”, goes Metropolitan Oleksandr’s statement.

According to him, it was Metropolitan Volodymyr himself who blessed one of the MPs to lodge a respective request of such action with the Prosecutor General of Ukraine on March 31.

Now the Prosecutor General’s Office is conducting an investigation on the charges of pressure and is interrogating witnesses.

"At present the investigators are collecting evidence of gross violations of law and proof of real endangerment of the health and life of Metropolitan Volodymyr resulting from my forced isolation,” he said.

The metropolitan added that at the moment he could not disclose any details, as it might obstruct the pretrial investigation.

"I am confident that the evidence collected in this case will be used not only for the purpose of legal liability of the offenders, but for the moral and ethical liability, after the materials collected are considered at the session of the Holy Synod or the Bishops’ Council of the UOC,” said Metropolitan Oleksandr.

As a reminder, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine instituted criminal proceedings against the former president of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych, the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Victor Pshonka, the former Minister of the Interior of Ukraine Vitaliy Zakharchenko and other former senior officials on the charges of pressure on the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) for the purpose of his removal from governance of the church.